In hope of removing this
Split-Payment
Manage your Credit Cards and Financing options seamlessly
Experience the convenience of paying your order total with multiple payment methods during checkout. Choose the option that suits you best, ensuring a seamless and hassle-free shopping.
Overview
Split Payment is splitting your bill using different methods of payment during e-commerce checkout.
Being on the Purchase Experience team, I took on the responsibility of identifying user pain points, when utilizing various payment methods. My goal was to elevate the split-payment experience, ensuring a trust worthy, seamless and enjoyable transaction process for all users. During the research, I found various user hiccups that could be solved for while using multiple payment methods.
Project Duration
17.5 Weeks
Tools Used
Role
UX Researcher
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Domain & Product understanding
User Interview
User Research
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Affinity mapping
Persona
Empathy map
Customer journey map
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Card sorting
User flow
User stories
Ideation
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Low fidelity
High fidelity
Usability testing
Timeline
Introduction
Discovery
Ideation
Prototyping
Testing
Retrospection
Given Design Brief
To understand, analyze and conduct research on split payment (two payments) for US region and suggesting improvements in current website while transforming to unified flow.
Deliverables
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Understand design brief, problems and Identify immediate areas of improvement to Split Payment feature through data analysis by conducting research.
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Come up with prototypes and recipes to test your hypothesis.
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Contribute in grooming and prioritizing features for MVP and post-MVP deliverables.
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Understand how to facilitate and manage design constraints.
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Develop a holistic understanding of the organization through meetings in different cross-functional departments.
Key Metrix
Improvement in CSAT score
Enhanced User experience (user testing results)
Competencies/Skills developed
Dealing with ambiguity
Prioritizing requirements
Facilitating discussions
Communicating ideas and decisions
Executive presence
Driving results, influencing
Design Process
learn about users
help define problem/s
create new ideas
Define
learn & iterate
Empathize
Ideate
Prototype
Test
insights that might redefine problem
Discovery and Framing is a collaborative process that explores and validates user needs to ensure we are identifying the right features to include when building a new product or feature.
Product Research
Checkout Experience
What is Split payment?
A split payment involves using multiple payment sources to settle the whole cost of a single transaction.
Who uses Split payment and why?
Split payment is a convenient mechanism to share costs and for customers that don’t want to go above their credit card limit, or who have a daily spending limit on their debit cards.
The introduction of the split payment mechanism throughout the EU would heavily disrupt cash flow in the economy. The real-time payment of VAT invoices will result in a positive cash flow for the tax authorities.
Impact of Split payment
Merchants who start using SplitPay have seen a 20% - 30% uplift in sales volumes. Less cart abandonments.
Customers using SplitPay are 10% - 15% more likely to complete purchases.
Currently, the split payment generates 20 - 30% of the total revenue hence leading to a big impact
How is Split Payment currently used?
After adding the initial payment, customers have the option to add another payment. This added payment, opens up split- payment experience and amounts to apply for each payment to split the order total.
Payment section; add initial payment option.
Add Another Payment >
Step 1:
Apply Amount for each Payment method >
Step 2:
Step 3:
Review & Submit
What is DFS?
Financial Services (DFS) facilitates customer financing of products and services sold.
What is DPA?
Preferred Account is authorized account for Financing Service.
Who uses DFS?
DFS or DPA is for users who wish for financial support. Users who do not wish to delay their purchase due to personal financial goals, apply for financing.
User Flow for Split Payment
Split-Payment Scenarios
Explicit Split-Pay
Select "Add another payment"
When a user has selected split payment explicitly to use more than one payment to complete the order total amount.
Required Split-Pay
Insufficient Credits
(Order Total > Credit Limit)
When a user applied for Financing the maximum credits he/she can get are limited. If his order total exceeds the available credits, he is required to add another payment.
Amount to apply change in split payment
Change in Cart / Order Total
Order Total = Applied amount
When a user has selected split payment and has applied both the payment but however he wishes to change is cart. By changing his cart, his order total would change. Now his order total would not match the applied amounts so he needs to change the applied amounts.
Understanding Customer Behavior
Current website:
Understanding user interactions with the current product is essential for improvement. Analyzing click streams provides valuable insights into what aspects are functioning well for users and which areas may need enhancement.
The purpose was to understand the most/moderate/least used features. To understand content lay-outing and it’s interaction points.
Not Used
Moderate Use
Most Used
Feature Improvement (Scope)
User Research
Empathies
Who are the users?
Any customer, based in US and who has an income/employment can use DFS.
Any customer who wishes to pay using more than one payment method is an user of split payment.
Why would they use split-payment?
Any customer who wants to use multiple
payment sources for any desired reason.
(maintaining credit limit/ required split payment)
Why would they use Financing?
Any customer who needs financial support, who does not wish to delay their purchase due to any financial drawbacks opt for Financing.
User Interviews
Questions asked
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Have you ever bought any electronic product online? If yes then how did you prefer paying and how was your experience?
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Add any item and proceed with checkout, what do you feel as you start checkout?
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Can you continue with Financing?
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How do you find the option for Financing? Were you able to comprehend Financing flow and options?
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Can you add another payment? (Thank you)
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Do you understand the split payment and new field related to split payment?
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Any thoughts or suggestions?
User Stories
User Persona
These are fictional representation of an ideal user. A deep understanding of a target audience is fundamental to creating
exceptional products. User personas help a product team find the answer to one of their most important questions, “Who are we designing for?” By understanding the expectations, concerns, and motivations of target users, it’s possible to design a product that will satisfy users’ needs and therefore be successful.
User Journey Map
The purpose of this map was to understand user thoughts, actions and feelings during split payment.
Currently the nervous or frustration points are during payment 1/2 mainly due to unawareness about what comes next in the flow to do.
Value Mapping
Value Proposition is the reason why customers turn to your company over another. It solves your customer's problems or satisfies your customer need.
Currently very few users are aware about Financing and split payment. While these features excite them, there is nervousness. Users have no clarity or details on these features/ offerings yet. Users tend to overlook these options. Few due to lack of Financial knowledge and few due to lack of trust & uncertainty.
Market Research
Split-payment experience
Benchmarking
Benchmarking in competitor studies allows businesses to evaluate their performance against peers. A thorough market study provided insights into user cognitive biases when transitioning to our platform and highlighted the competitive offerings shaping user expectations. This analysis identified key strengths and weaknesses of current and potential competitors, uncovering gaps in the market.
Interpretation
This will brief about the analysis and hypothesis drawn from the discovery phase. Framing design brief, goals, objective before jumping into sketching for the concepts.
Insights
Research perceptions
Problem Areas | Current website
based on user interaction and research
Lack of Visual Hierarchy
1. Content prioritization
The user has no chance to grasp the next step.
2. Upfront user interface
3. User experience flow
Repetitive steps with increased cognitive load.
Product
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The current split payment flow has critical usability issues, including lack of clarity, repetitive steps, and poorly organized content, which leave users uncertain and increase error likelihood.
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Key elements like financing links appear non-clickable, and the layout fails to highlight the importance of split payment options, potentially reducing engagement and impacting revenue.
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Optimizing the flow with clear titles, feedback mechanisms, and streamlined steps can significantly improve user experience and business outcomes.
User
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Users prioritize a smooth, quick checkout experience but often feel anxious during payments.
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Errors reduce order completion, and users value clear content, split-pay options, and financing.
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However, the lack of upfront clarity makes understanding split payments overwhelming.
Market
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Market research reveals that split payment is a relatively new feature, with limited adoption among competitors—only one competitor company currently offers both split payment and financing options.
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Most websites use a stepper indicator for a unified checkout experience, making the process appear more straightforward.
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Providing users with an overview of the payment process could significantly enhance ease of use and user satisfaction.
Heuristic Evaluation
The purpose was to prioritize pain points and goals based on user understanding, deliverables and overall insights for further improvement.
Re-design Brief
Re-designing split payment experience for US region which encourages the user to complete their purchase by adding 2 payments with optimized user experience.
Hypothesis
In current scenarios user tends to get lost during the flow which causes nervousness and errors. Not
providing clarity makes the user go back and decreases the possibility of order completion.
What we want to solve?
Solving for user's current tendency of getting confused as there are multiple things to comprehend in the user flow for split payment. As a designer our challenge is to guide the user, decrease errors and provide smooth, understandable experience.
Design Creitera
Providing a Unified Checkout Experience.
To study and follow latest Design System
To improve split payment experience.
Goals
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Providing Unified Checkout experience.
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Improving content priority, enabling users to focus on task at hand.
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Simplifying split payment experience and user flow.
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Allowing user to complete purchase during edge cases.
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Enabling user to understand on going flow.
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Provide better clarity of split payment experience.
Objective
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Reducing the pain points in the user flow.
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Increasing CSAT score with proposed improvements.
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Enabling & encouraging user to complete purchase during edge cases.
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Reducing time for task completion.
Ideation
This will cover all the concepts and ideas that were brought to the table. And the process of reaching the final concept.
Mind-Mapping
Components & feature lists
Primary
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Payment Title
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Promotional Texts
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Split Payment Checkbox
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Information Icon
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Payment Options
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CTA
Split-payment
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Payment 1 title
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Payment 2 title
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Amount to Apply
On-demand
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Information Icon pop-up
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Financing Information
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Apply for Financing
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Already Have financing CTA
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Credit Card Information
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Card Number
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Card holder’s Name
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Expiration Date
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CVV
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"Submit"CTA
User Interface
The initial ideation process began with mind mapping to understand objectives, goals, and design briefs without constraints. This phase focused on creating a unified user experience, laying out checkout details on the left and other information on the right. The details were further refined using low-fidelity wireframes for clarity.
Payment section
The payment section is critical for establishing priorities and optimizing layout for delivery and shipping. A clear understanding of its content enhances efficiency and user experience.
Initial Sketches
Iterations
The payment section is critical for establishing priorities and optimizing layout for delivery and shipping. A clear understanding of its content enhances efficiency and user experience.
Final Flow Ideation
The final iteration introduced a progress indicator within the split payment flow, dividing the process into three clear steps:
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Adding the first payment.
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Adding the second payment.
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Applying the split amounts on a dedicated pg.
The progress indicator serves as both a guide and an overview, highlighting the current step while providing feedback on completed steps. Detailed exploration refined the stepper’s design, including content, titles, sizing, and spacing.
The split amount page presents only one input field per payment, complemented by concise help text to clarify its purpose. A happy path was ideated to demonstrate the stepper's role in guiding users seamlessly through the flow, ensuring clarity and usability.
Exploring Stepper Visuals
Final Prototype
I started with Happy path prototyping where user does willful split payment with financing and credit card.
This flow covers major improvements in terms of feature, flow, layout, guidance and clarity for the user.
The user flow starts with user landing on payment section of checkout.
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Once he clicks on the split payment checkbox a progress indicator/stepper is displayed.
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The user chooses to pay with Financing as payment one. After completion flow, the user lands in payment section with added payment 1.
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User adds payment 2 as credit card. After security check for credit card, user is expected to do the last step of splitting the amount.
After which he can review and submit order.
Prototype Link: Click here
WHAT's NEW!?
How is it better?
Usability testing is a technique used in user-centered interaction design to evaluate a product by testing it on users. This can be seen as an irreplaceable usability practice, since it gives direct input on how real users use the system. It is more concerned with the design intuitiveness of the product and tested with target audience.
After creating Unmoderate test
Prototype Testing>
Step 1:
Building Audience | Demographics >
Step 2:
Step 3:
Screeners | Filtering users
Step 4:
Tasks | Objective & Goal based
Step 5:
Launch URL | Prototype link
After launching the tests, users can add contributors and monitor updates on the dashboard. Each user's experience is recorded with a timestamp, allowing researchers to review the recordings. By analyzing these recordings, valuable insights can be gathered
Average Time
10
Users
Contributors
26-41
Age
United States
6/10
Full rating
scale of 7
8/10
Referred to stepper
User flow
Hypothesis
Observations
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Users required more clarity during split payment flow (Financing +CC)
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4/10 users were guiding themselves through the stepper. 2/10 users referred stepper now and then.
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Providing help text during split amount would be helpful.
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2/10 users read the help text for understanding.
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Breaking down steps of split payment would decrease the complexity in flow & improve overall experience.
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6/10 has the overall feedback to be very smooth, easy and helpful.
Future Scope
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Availability of sufficient time frame for the project could impact on better and deeper understanding.
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Further real-time user testing could bring up new insights for further iterations.
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There is scope to rethink project with other payment methods and combinations.
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There is scope to iterate concept with a more unified flow approach.
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There is scope to rethink project with having more than 2+ payment methods for split payment.
